Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is already serving jail sentence in a rape case was on Friday convicted of murder of his disciple, Ranjit Singh, in 2002.
The special CBI Court of Panchkula held Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and four others guilty under Sections 302 (murder) and 120 b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The quantum of the sentence will be pronounced on October 12.
Ranjit Singh, a former follower of Ram Rahim, was shot dead by four assailants on July 10, 2002, at his native Khanpur Kolian village in Kurukshetra. According to the CBI chargesheet, he was murdered as Ram Rahim suspected that he was behind the circulation of an anonymous letter highlighting the sexual exploitation of female disciples on the Dera premises.
Recently, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had dismissed a petition seeking the transfer of the Ranjit Singh murder case from the special CBI court in Panchkula to any other special CBI court in Punjab, Haryana or Chandigarh.
Notably, the self-styled godman Ram Rahim was sentenced in August 2017 for 20 years in jail for raping two women. His conviction on August 25, 2017, had led to violence in Panchkula and Sirsa, leaving over 40 people dead and more than 260 injured in Panchkula.
Later, a special CBI court in Panchkula in January 2019 had also sentenced Ram Rahim and three others to life imprisonment for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati.
The Dera chief is currently lodged at the high-security Sunaria jail in Rohtak.